CARLONE, Giovanni Battista

Painter, part of an Italian family of artists, son of Taddeo Carlone (1543–1615), a sculptor, and brother of the painter Giovanni Carlone (1584-1630). He probably went to Rome with his brother and studied in Florence with Domenico Passignano on the way back to Genoa. The many frescoes datable to the 1620s suggest that the brothers probably worked as a team. Giovanni Battista's independent activity is not documented before 1630-32, when he finished the frescoes begun by his brother in S Antonio Abate in Milan. His earliest dated work is a canvasGLOSSARYA woven cloth used as a support for painting. The best-quality canvas is made of linen; other materials used are cotton, hemp, and jute. It is now so familiar a material that the word 'canvas' has become almost a synonym for an oil painting, but it was not until around 1500 that it began to rival the wooden panel (which was more expensive and took longer to prepare) as the standard support for movable paintings (the transition came later in Northern Europe than in Italy). Canvas is not suitable for painting on until it has been coated with a ground, which isolates the fabric from the paint; otherwise it will absorb too much paint, only very rough effects will be obtainable, and parts of the fabric may be rotted by the pigments. It must also be made taut on a stretcher or by some other means. of St James Opening the Door for King Ferdinand (1632; Genoa, oratoryGLOSSARYA place where Oratorians pray or preach; a small private chapel. of S Giacomo della Marina), which shows figures with sharp facial features and twisting, tight drapery folds - a figure style indebted to Salvator Rosa and distinctly different from the slightly swollen faces and hands in the figures by Giovanni Carlone I.

He spent most of his life in his native Genoa, painting mainly for local religious buildings and private patrons. Giovanni Battista Carlone's studio produced a vast quantity of brilliantly coloured frescoes, which were highly proficient and popular; these are best seen on the naveGLOSSARYthe main interior space of a church building. It may have parallel aisles on each side, often separated from it by pillars, and is intersected by the transept, which cuts across it at the point where the choir begins. vaults of the large Genoese churches, S Ambrogio and S Siro. He relied on family members, and among his 24 children were Simon Carlone, Niccolo Carlone (1644-1714) and Giovanni Andrea Carlone, who assisted him and kept the studio alive until the end of the 17th century.